Preparation

1

Direction for preparing cabbage:

2

In a big enough pot, bring water to boil. Add salt and stir to dissolve.Turn the heat down to low medium and put the cabbage into the pot. As the cabbage starts to cook, leafs will loosen and you will be able to cut them at stem and peel them off without damaging them. Let the loose leafs is a pot to cook for 3-4 more minutes, so they become soft and manageable.

3

Transfer the soft leafs into a bowl, cover the bowl, and continue working on your cabbage until you reach the heart of the cabbage.

Maybe it will seem like a lot of olive oil, but when the rice joins the party, the oil will be absorbed.

8

Drain rice, add it to the meat, and stir over medium heat for about 3 – 4 minutes. Remove from heat, add parsley, and stir to combine. Transfer the filling into a big enough bowl and let it cool down a bit.

Roll into a loaf and put it into a baking dish. Do not roll too tight, because the rice is still raw and it needs space to expand while cooking. Otherwise you will end up with crunchy rice inside a tasty cabbage loaf. Not appetizing at all! You will end up with 40 – 42 cabbage loafs.

13

Cover the cabbage loafs with the remaining small cabbage leafs. Pour a mixture of 1 tbsp tomato paste, 1 tbsp Vegeta, 1 tbsp olive oil, and 2 cups of water, over the cabbage loafs, cover with aluminum foil, and put the baking dish into a 425*F preheated oven for 1 hour on the lower rack of the oven.

14

After one hour pull the dish out of oven and let in stand covered for at least 20 minutes on a counter top before serving.

About

Cabbage is my food companion since I can remember. However, I was first introduced to cabbage loafs after I got married.
In my home country, Slovenia, cabbage heads are pickled and then cooked in a similar way as cabbage loafs is cooked; the dish is called “sarma” and it has a sour note. Sarma is a dish of cabbage leaves rolled around a filling usually based on minced meat. Sarma means 'a wrapped thing' in Turkish, from the verb sarmak 'to wrap' or 'to roll'. The name sarma has been borrowed by many languages and probably also by the Slovenian language.
Immediately after my first bite into cabbage loaf- malfoof, I fell in love with this dish! It’s a hardy dish, yet it is also a healthy one.